Dry the anther?

[pacmanJohn]

I have never successfully cross pollinated tomatoes before, but it was not for lack of trying last year. I received some good advice from Mr Wagner out here that helped, but I still was not able to get any crosses to take. I can't describe how frustrating it was to try so hard, so many times and I just couldn't get pollen. I tried the electric toothbrush at first, but then found that the tweezers and glass suggested by Mr Wagner seemed better but still got hardly any. I simply would pull part/all of an anther cone off of a flower (anther had already opened, I suppose this is correct time..?..) and would tap it on the glass. I've seen some discussions that you should let the anther cone(s) dry. I'm looking for any assistance in getting pollen from the anther cone.

I just have one measly little cross I'd like to attempt but am tensing up as I type this just thinking about the frustration.

Thank you for any input.

[Worth1]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...akayOZkqo0SPsA

[sprtsguy76]

This is where I learned everything I needed to know about crossing tomatoes.

http://www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/Tomato/xingtom.html

Damon

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by sprtsguy76

This is where I learned everything I needed to know about crossing tomatoes.

http://www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/Tomato/xingtom.html

Damon

That's the same link I posted.

Worth

[PNW_D]

Here's how they did it in 1890 wonder if there are any notes remaining on E.S. Goff's results Anyhoo, worth a read ........

This section is from the book "The American Garden Vol. XI", by L. H. Bailey. Also available from Amazon: American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants.
Crossing Varieties Of The Tomato

The Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, England, made a public statement a few weeks ago to the effect that a knowledge of the science of botany is of no value to the practical gardener. It may be in doubtful taste to question the assertion of so high an authority, but the query arises in my mind, what would one accomplish at cross-pollinating plants who knows nothing of the parts of a flower, and of the functions of those parts ? Possibly the dabbling with this sort of knowledge would be regarded by some as a sure evidence of a lack of practical ability.
However this may be, I received a letter a few weeks ago from a practical gardener whose hair has grown gray in the business, inquiring if I could give him some simple directions for crossing varieties of the tomato. A sentence in his letter was somewhat touching: "My threescore years and over remind me that those younger than I are the proper persons to do this work, but I do not expect to fold my hands and wait my few remaining years." It occurred to me that there are possibly some among the younger readers of The American Garden who may be inspired to take up this noble work, and for the benefit of any such, as well as my aged friend, I have decided to offer my little experience.

The beginner is likely to meet with difficulty in securing pollen from the flowers of the tomato until he learns a little botanical secret. The same applies to the blossoms of the potato. If we refer in our Gray's Manual to the genus solanum, to which these plants belong, we shall find it stated that the anthers (parts that contain the pollen) open " at the top by two pores, or chinks." In the flowers of many other plants, as the strawberry, apple, lily, etc., the anthers burst at maturity and expose the pollen to view, but not so with the tomato. Just how the pollen makes its own escape through these little pores or chinks I do not know. We are sure that it does, however, for few flowers are more uniformly fertile than those of the tomato.

A reference to the drawings will perhaps be of some assistance. Not having a sample of a tomato blossom at hand, I have substituted a drawing of one of the potato, which resembles it-sufficiently for our purpose. In the larger drawing, the stamens are seen in the cen ter, clustered around the pistil. The chinks a their tips are not shown, as they are chiefly on the inner side. In the smaller drawing, however, which represents the stamens and pistils as cut across transversly, the little folds containing the pollen (marked p. p.) are easily seen. In order to secure the pollen, it is only necessary to insert a very narrow spatula, or the end of the tweezers, between the stamens near the base, crowding the edge of one out sufficiently so that the instrument may be inserted into the fold. Then by carefully raising the instrument upward so that its end will pass through the whole length of the little fold and out at the top, it will be found laden with the golden yellow powder, if the flower is in the proper stage of maturity.

In the case of the tomato, it is better to remove the stamens of the flower we desire to pollenize before the petals open, to guard against self-fertilization ; and to prevent pollination from other plants, it is well to inclose the flower, after removing the stamens, in a little sack made of soft paper. The following day, the sack may be removed and the pollen applied, after which the sack should be replaced.
Cross Section.
A Potato Blossom.
I would invite the readers of The American Garden, of all ages, to make the experiment of crossing varieties of the tomato. My own experience in this work has developed some highly interesting facts, and others will no doubt be repaid for their work. •
University of Wisconsin. E. S. Goff.

[TZ-OH6]

This is the link from within the link above that was very helpful to me

http://www.avrdc.org/LC/tomato/hybrid/08emasc.html

I did things a little differently though. I pulled off a small pile of anther cones with a tweezers (from 10-20 flowers), and let them air dry for 24 hours (rather than using a light bulb etc). Then I put them in a small screw cap pill organizer bottle/jar and shook them vigorously. Out in the garden I took a butter knife and scraped the sides of the little jar with the rounded tip of the knife, which resulted in a little pile of pollen. It was easy to dab the stigma into the pollen.


The difficult part was getting the receptive bud at the right stage of maturity since you have to get it before it opens to ensure it hasn't self pollinated. Most of my tries resulted in failure from pollinating immature buds. This is less of a problem if you want to create a new stable variety (or have a genetic marker such as potatoleaf) because you can weed out self pollinated offspring at some point, but if you want F1 seeds from two regular leaf plants for a crop tomato you don't want any self pollinated seeds.

[pacmanJohn]

Excellent! Thank you all very much. I plan on using one PL and one RL so I should be OK on getting a dominate trait to tell the cross takes.

Thanks again!

[travis]

I'm only going to respond to the question regarding obtaining pollen from the donor blossom. That seemed to be the original question. Of course the other particulars of emasculating the receiving blossoms, applying the pollen, etc. is all online at various sites.

I've found the best way for me to obtain pollen is to use a dark piece of glass like a black or dark blue shot glass or a discarded sunglasses lens so the pollen shows up clearly on the dark glass as it is shed from the blossoms.

Then I simply take a fully opened blossom and tap it gently against the glass surface, tap, tap, tap, tap, with the cone making contact with the glass until the pollen is shed. If after four or five taps, there is no shed, I move on.

I've found the best shed is gotten during high fronts when the sky is clear and there is a slight breeze and the temperature is in the low to mid 80s, all of which is prime for natural pollination.

[pacmanJohn]

Thanks Travis. I used a clear glass last year, but I tapped, and tapped till my tapper was shot, on dozens of flowers that had opened... Very frustrating. Never paid attention to the type of day that I did it on though..

[dice]

It is good to get to the flowers in mid-morning, too, or even
early morning on a hot day. When you see them with the ends
of the anthers all twisted and chewed up, a bee has been there
already. I try those if there are few open flowers on a variety
that I want pollen from right then, but I usually get better
results with a flower that has just opened where the ends of
the anthers still look pristine.

One might try bagging a cluster of blossoms for a pollen
source, to keep the bees away until you can collect the
pollen for your cross. (Some kind of lightweight mesh
fine enough to keep a bee out, but open enough to let air
flow through it.) Once you can see several flowers open
inside it, remove the mesh and tap or buzz the blossoms
to get the pollen out.

[salix]

Travis and Dice, thank you for that very detailed and specific information. Now I have to confess, for some reason, every time I see the title of this thread I think of that old song title "Shock the Monkey"...

[pacmanJohn]

Preciate all the info. I'll put all of the suggestions to good use. I really want to get a successful cross this year. It shouldn't be this difficult and hopefully won't be with the suggestions I've received here.

Thanks.

[sprtsguy76]

Ya getting back to the original question, lol. I find that after I've dried the anther cones under an office lamp for a day or so I collect pollen by simply swirling and shaking the anther cones in a small glass bowl. After that I run my finger along the bottom of the bowl a couple times until I can see pollen collect on my finger. I apply the pollen straight from my finger.

[pacmanJohn]

Thanks. That sounds easy, and I'm all about keeping it simple.

[dice]

There are two distinctly different methods here. One way
is leaving the anthers of the flower that one collects pollen
from in place, so that it probably gets pollenated by tapping
or buzzing it and then produces a fruit of its own, as well as
providing some pollen for a cross. The other way is to collect
a handful of whole flowers, dry them, and then shake the pollen
out of them in some kind of container, perhaps with mesh over
one end. This second method is easier to justify to oneself
if one has a whole row of plants of the cultivar that one is
using for a pollen source, or at least more than one plant
of it.

An intermediate approach would be pulling the anthers off
of several flowers (as one does when emasculating buds to
prevent self-fertilization of the female parent of a cross),
drying those, and collecting pollen from them. One needs
already opened flowers for this to be sure that the anthers
actually contain pollen, and those flowers may still become
pollenated in the process of collecting the anthers.